Punishing with a “hammer” is savagery; there are courts and justice for that. Robert Kocharyan—the second President, leader of the "Armenia" bloc which will run in Sunday’s snap parliamentary elections, and its candidate for prime minister—stated this at their campaign meeting with the residents of Avshar village in Ararat Province.

To note, for two days now, acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has been "armed" with a hammer which he waves around at their election rallies, threatening to "establish order" with it.

Responding to the call to reinstate the death penalty in Armenia, the second President stressed that Armenia has lifted the death penalty and he is a sincere supporter of the abolition of capital punishment. "We are going toward making peace. But this does not mean that the guilty will not be punished; they must be punished. Justice is needed; but not to punish with a 'hammer;' there is a judge and justice for that. Punishing with a hammer is the method of savage tribes; I have only seen such a thing in old movies. If you took the hammer, take the axe, too; this is the method of savage tribes. I do not even know how to describe it.

The main ‘case’ of our country has worse habits than in the Middle Ages. He should be removed from power and then demanded to explain how Shushi and Hadrut [towns of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] came under enemy [Azerbaijan] control [after the Artsakh war last fall]. What about 5 billion [US dollars]? This raises serious, well-founded doubts about a deal with Azerbaijan. Maybe they did not transfer to him in full, and now he is talking about the [ARF] Dashnaktsutyun [Party] flag? To say such a thing on the day of the Armenian flag … I cannot explain it any other way," Kocharyan stated.